An enhanced five-year global partnership has been agreed between Kantar and Twitter, which will involve collaboration on new research products in the areas of advertising effectiveness, consumer insight, brand equity, customer satisfaction and media measurement. Kantar CEO Eric Salama said: “We are very pleased to be extending this relationship and to build on the learning and successes of our initial collaboration in the area of social TV. Incorporating Twitter as the ‘data of now’ will allow us to make real-time predictive research a reality for our clients across a range of our services.”

Raft of new deals in digital and fast-growth markets

In the last month WPP and its operating companies have made a series of acquisitions and investments that further strengthen the Group’s leadership in new markets and new media:

Y&R has launched Y&R Moonshop, a new lab to foster entrepreneurialism, technology experimentation and creativity throughout the Y&R network in North America. Based in Nashville, the lab will provide clients with additional creative resources for advertising and marketing challenges requiring innovation, and will be led by Matt Colangelo, with Dave Pittman serving as Creative Director.

Lightspeed GMI, a leading provider of technology-enabled market research solutions, has launched Context, a tool that enables clients to better understand consumers’ interactions, motivations and preferences on social networks such as Facebook.

Leading research agency Millward Brown has launched a self-service version of eStatic, its copy-testing solution that helps marketers quickly gauge the creative effectiveness of a print or outdoor advertisement.

Lightspeed GMI, a leading provider of technology-enabled market research solutions, has launched its Honesty Detector Service, a new tool to ensure online sample quality by using a statistical approach to eliminate respondents that are providing less than honest answers to questions. The Honesty Detector is designed to catch poor responders not identified by traditional validation techniques.

For the second consecutive year MEC and CNBC have conducted research into how Asia’s CEOs consume content on digital devices. The Connected CEO 2.0 study found that most CEOs now use tablets rather than traditional laptops for work meetings and travel, but adoption of social networking in a personal capacity is still low.

Mindshare Worldwide has released a study showing the significant changes to the media and business landscape since the first tweet was sent eight years ago, revealing differences in the way that news and information are shared, driven by social media and the internet.

Ahead of the European Parliament elections in May, H+K Strategies Brussels has launched EUelects 2014, a series of articles that analyse the European election process both from a pan-EU and member state perspective.

Research carried out by Burson-Marsteller into the influence and demographics of people using Twitter has shown that individuals who follow Fortune Global 100 companies are more connected and more influential than the average user.

Millward Brown has released its annual AdReaction Study, which provides insights on consumer perceptions of digital advertising. The 2014 report takes a look at multiscreen use and receptivity to advertising across devices (TVs, smartphones, laptops and tablets).

GroupM Next and search marketing agency Catalyst have conducted research into Smartphone adoption in Canada, providing brands with a deeper understanding of consumer behaviours, activities by location, and perceptions across both English- and French-speaking users.

MediaCom has partnered with Celtra, a leading mobile display and analytics provider, to deliver more effective advertising opportunities for its clients. The agreement will make it simpler and more cost-effective to produce, manage and monitor delivery of mobile advertising.

AKQA has appointed Masaki Hamura as Managing Director of its Tokyo office.

BATES CHI&PARTNERS

Christina Chong has joined Bates CHI&Partners Singapore as Managing Director.

COHN & WOLFE

Cohn & Wolfe has named Helena Roberts as Director of Consumer Marketing, EMEA, and Anders Dalenius as Brand Development Director, Sweden.

GREY GROUP

Shahvez Afridi has been promoted to Head of Strategy for Procter & Gamble by Grey Asia Pacific, while Lynn Chow has been appointed as Senior Vice President, Global Account Director, and will lead the GlaxoSmithKline team in Grey Singapore.

GROUPM:

MEC

MEC has appointed Josh Berman as Head of Digital Product Development.

MEDIACOM

MediaCom Worldwide has named Deirdre McGlashan as its first Chief Digital Officer.

Shane Crombie has been appointed as Head of Interaction, MediaCom China.

JWT

JWT has promoted Michiel Hofstee to CEO for the Gulf region.

JWT Singapore has hired Joseph Chua as Business Director and Jude Foo as Group Account Director, while JWT Hong Kong has appointed Craig Howie as Chief Creative Officer.

JWT Melbourne has named Jacqueline Wang as Planning Director and Kellie Lennon as Client Services Director, while JWT Sydney has appointed Simon Langley as Executive Creative Director.

HeathWallace has appointed Bo Zou as Head of User Experience Design, Asia, and Kaisen Wang as Senior User Experience Designer, Asia.

OGILVY & MATHER

Ogilvy Public Relations has named Michele Anderson as Managing Director of its Chicago office and Michelle Ang as its new Talent Director in Singapore.

YOUNG & RUBICAM GROUP

Graham Lang has been named Chief Creative Officer of Y&R Africa.

Alois Schober has become a Non-Executive Chairman of Y&R Vienna after stepping down as CEO. He has been replaced as CEO by Sebastian Bayer.

Wunderman Australia has appointed Dom Hickey as Head of Planning, Wunderman Singapore has named Steven Power as General Manager and Wunderman International Tokyo has hired Yoshie Toriya as Director, Data and CRM Strategy.

Allison Lim has joined Burson-Marsteller as Managing Director of Public Affairs and Government Communications for Asia Pacific.

Cohn & Wolfe won the Consumer Launch Campaign of the Year award for its work for Nokia at the PRWeek Awards 2014.

DTC Perspectives, a conference, training and publishing company for the consumer marketing of pharmaceutical and healthcare products, has inducted Jim Joseph, Cohn & Wolfe North American President, into its Hall of Fame.

GEOMETRY GLOBAL

Geometry Marketdata won Modern Consumer Magazine’s Excellence in Client Services award at the Brazilian Client Service Awards 2014.

GREY GROUP

Grey Group India won a Gold Press Lotus, a Silver Press Lotus and a Silver Print Craft Lotus at Adfest 2014, while Grey Group Singapore brought home a Silver Design Lotus and a Silver Print Craft Lotus from the awards ceremony held in Thailand.

GROUPM:

MAXUS

Metalworks and Maxus Singapore clinched the Best Tech Prototype award at the Chinatown coLAB 2014 Hackathon, an event sponsored by the Singapore Tourism Board.

MEDIACOM

MediaCom was named the Most Competitive Global Media Agency in The 2013 Compitches Report, the latest study from RECMA.

JWT

JWT Cairo won two Golds and four Silvers, and JWT Dubai won four Golds at the Dubai Lynx International Festival of Creativity.

JWT Singapore was awarded a Grand Prix at the Singapore Creative CSR Awards.

KANTAR

The Core Company’s Linus Larsson and Sebastian Roos were awarded a Red Dot Design Award in the Industrial Devices category.

Enprecis has been named by CIO Review as one of the Top 20 Most Promising Automotive Technology Solution Providers of 2014.

VBAT

Brand creation group VBAT’s packaging design for GAMMA Tools was awarded a Silver ADCN Award by the Art Directors Club Netherlands.

WPP DIGITAL

POSSIBLE won four Silver ADDY Awards at the American Advertising Federation’s regional awards ceremony in Seattle.

YOUNG & RUBICAM GROUP

Y&R China was recognised as the Leading Influential Ad Agency by the China Brand Owners Association.

GPY&R Melbourne won a Gold and two Silvers at AdFest 2014 and Y&R Prague won a Gold at the Zlata Pecka Awards.

Y&R Midwest was named Agency of the Year at the Chicago American Advertising Awards, while VML Australia was honoured with a South by Southwest Interactive Award.

Y&R New Zealand picked up four Silvers at The Communication Agencies Association of New Zealand (CAANZ) Axis Awards, and These Days Belgium was awarded a Silver in the Brand Impact category at the 2014 TV Awards.

Wunderman Prague won two Silver Louskáceks at the Art Directors Club Creative Awards and a Grand Prix, two Golds and two Silvers at the Internet Effectiveness Awards.

Wunderman International Japan won a Grand Prix, a Gold and two Silvers at the Nikkei Advertising Awards 2014.

Caroline Worboys, Wunderman Data & Insights EMEA Managing Director, was named on DataIQ’s Big Data 50 list as one of the most influential people in data-driven marketing for 2014.